The Californian

I had such a great dining experience here last month that I decided to come back for a celebratory dinner with my hubs. I’m glad we did. Once again, the food and service exceeded my expectations. Brandon was our server. We were checked on frequently, our champagne glasses were always refilled, and we never felt rushed throughout our meal.
I ordered the lamb tenderloin again, and it was perfectly cooked. I love the light and mild curry sauce that accompanies it. Hubs enjoyed his rib eye, especially the sautéed mushrooms and chimichurri sauce, which I have to say, is one of the best I’ve had (vibrant flavors with a slight kick and not oily). The shrimp cocktail was just okay. I probably wouldn’t order it again. For dessert, the restaurant gave us a complimentary piece of chocolate mousse cake, and it too was delicious.
Parking is valet only but validated for diners.
Sadly to say, I think we were one of the few lucky (and last) diners because I just read that The Californian was closed for renovation the following day on Nov. 17^th, to be reopened in Spring of 2014.
If the food and service are the same, we’ll definitely come back to check out the new décor.

This place was delightful in every way… Marc, Cullen and our wonderful waitress pulled off an amazing 21^st. birthday dinner party for 12 family members ranging in age from 77 to 19… the food was perfect. We had everything from the filet, pasta, burger, scallops, soups, salads and drinks. I love having everyone served at the same time, wine was poured with fresh glasses between bottles, more heaters were put out as the evening chilled… we were very taken care of… it was definitely not this team’s first rodeo, they certainly know how to put on a dinner party, leaving the family to do nothing but enjoy and celebrate together. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?
Thanks you guys for a flawless evening.

We were visiting Huntington Beach for a few days and stayed at the Hyatt Regency (see separate review).
ATMOSPHERE: Quiet on a Wednesday evening even with a large conference going on at the hotel. Only a couple of other tables when we arrived at around 6pm (opening time). We were seated promptly by the hostess and seated by the fireplace! How romantic. Dimly lit. Semi-​casual place. Quirky décor.
FOOD:
1. Complimentary rosemary bread — white fluffy bread served with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Very good bread! We asked for another serving.
2. Lobster fries ($ 12) — Our first time having lobster fries. This is what our server suggested and it seems to be a crowd favorite. Not enough lobster flavor… yes, it tasted good but it was fried. Anything fried tastes good!
3. Swordfish ($ 23) — Had to taste my date’s dish. Very good item. The chimichurri sauce was soo good with a strong citrus flavor going well with the fish. Came with a side of kale sautéed with some cabbage pieces which was also very good! A bit oily but maybe that was why it was good. I would order this again!
4. Zatar Grilled Organic Chicken ($ 16) — chosen from their healthy balance menu. Chicken served on the bone was tender but it was bland chicken served on top of a salad with veggies drizzled with a vinaigrette. I was disappointed… you can still have a healthy dish with a lot of flavor. I would not order this again.
5. Moscow Mule ($ 12) — Very average… I don’t think they used bitters. Definitely not the best I’ve had. We overheard the bartender not knowing how to make a mule and it was his first time making it… shouldn’t we have gotten it discounted then?
6. Margarita ($ 12) — Very good with a kick. You can tell it was made with fresh juices.
SERVICE: Our server was very good. We liked her a lot. No complaints on service at all.
PRICES: Pricey for what you get but we used a
certificate which does cover costs of alcohol now. Otherwise expect at least $ 50 per person for appetizer to share, entrée, and 2 drinks each.
TIP: Patio seating by heating lamps available and indoor seating by fireplace also available. Reservations can be made via OpenTable for points! No happy hour
CONCLUSION: Very nice, upscale location for a quiet dinner date night with great service but food could be better. Highlight of the meal was the kale and chimichurri sauce! I don’t think I would come here again unless I was staying at the hotel due to convenience factor.

Mark, the manager tonight, was pleasant and very helpful. Great waiter too. Sat outside with ocean view.
Had a rib-​eye steak with lobster taters. $ 29. Lobster taters means mashed potatoes with chunks of lobster on top. Nice. Dipping sauces served but who wants to dip a rib-​eye? ;-)
Almost a 4 because the prices are high and all items are separate (salad, etc) and the rib-​eye could have been thicker. A thin steak is hard to make memorable, they cook through too easy and almost impossible to leave juicy.
But dug it. And a great Bday desert for free. Great outdoor setting and they had a very great classical guitarist playing outside. Fun.

Stopped in to check this restaurant out for an anniversary party of 12 – 16 that I booked for a couple of weeks from now. Because it is for a Friday, I could not book regular tables in advance, and they offered me a private dining room. We wanted to see what the room was like, and it didn’t have the beautiful view. We asked for the manager, and Marc Anderson was great. Although he couldn’t make the decision to override the hotel policy, he gave me the information of the tables to request and then asked if we had time for dinner. We needed to be at two other places, so we asked how quick the kitchen was, and he said that since it was still early, he felt it should be pretty fast. We had an AMAZING dinner. Our waitress, Danielle, was very sweet and service was excellent. She suggested a few dishes and we loved them. Starting with Tempura Lobster Fries-​12– we moved onto heirloom tomato salad burrata cheese, olive pistou, preserved lemon, basil aioli –9-​and finished with Friday’s feature of chilean sea bass
maine lobster mashed, local vegetables and lemon rocket butter-​34-​. My husband and I shared these items and we were stuffed. The chunks of lobster in the mashed potatoes were plentiful and delicious. Then, when our waitress asked us if we were staying at the hotel, and we answered no, and told her about why we stopped in, she told us they had a «locals» card and we were given a card for 20% off all food at the hotel and free 4 hour valet parking. (Usually you have to spend $ 30 at a restaurant for this, and this will allow us to get it even if we don’t) Dining here will become a new «regular» place for us, as we can eat, take a walk on the beach and catch the weekend music in the courtyards.

Overall a VERY disappointing experience. We have been to the Hyatt many times (used to live 100 yards away) and enjoyed the bar and restaurants. Last night was pretty much a disaster. My wife ordered a simple salad and a side of fries — this was the ONLY order (other than the bottle of wine) that was good. I ordered a ribeye steak with asparagus but emphasized that I HATED pesto and wanted NONE on my asparagus. Our friend ordered blackened salmon on a Caesar salad.
Her salad came out looking wimpy and white with little in terms of green parts of the Romaine lettuce, but the worst thing was that her «blackened salmon» was more like «Kentucky (over-​) Fried Salmon» with no sign of spices. My steak came out with the server telling me «without pesto» — but a quick glance showed it soaked in pesto! Sent it back and fresh asparagus came back but my steak still covered in pesto (maybe they thought I wouldn’t notice or taste it because they turned the steak over). Steak would have been great but I HATE pesto.
Brought all this to attention of waitress who offered us free dessert as a remedy. That was a mistake. I had the crème brûlée (definitely good but was supposed to rosemary or something similar — no it was vanilla but very good). The almond cookies that came with it were terrible — soggy and nasty. My wife had the pana cotta. Totally, totally tasteless — the taste fairy had visited apparently and taken the taste away leaving a tasteless virgin white lump of jello like stuff. Then our friend had their Meyer lemon cheesecake. Looked good, but unfortunately again the taste fairy had removed every single ounce of flavor — NO LEMON TASTE at all!!! I note at least one other Unilocal slam for the same failing — apparently they don’t learn.
I called the manager over to point out our disappointment and he seems mad (at the «chef» not me). At the time I felt guilty about complaining about the free desserts — but later that night I was mad at myself for feeling guilty and being soft on this. Heavens — I got free desserts because the entrees so were so bad — — and then the desserts sucked big time.
Ultra disappointing

Two words: LOBSTER FRIES.
And an amazing location and staff. Menu has creative, healthy choices, and all employees were very attentive, as to be expected from a restaurant in a hotel of the Hyatt Rgency’s caliber. Just keep in mind the entry is not on the PCH. You have to go all the way around to a parallel street. I will definitely return, and I have already recommended this place to colleagues.

we came here for breakfast and were sort of in a rush. since we were here when they opened, it wasn’t that big of a deal, or so we thought. it was pretty slow and we barely made it out of there in time.
the menu is broken down into categories where there is varying layers of dishes being more and more healthy for you. one of our party had oatmeal, with small containers of nuts and flax that he could have added. there’s lots to choose from and several items looked tasty.
i went for an omelette with some cheese, tomato and avocado. pretty tasty, and i swapped fruit for toast. way too much to eat for breakfast though, and most of my potatoes were left.

Back a couple times since my last update. Same disappointing experiences, though I’ll say service has improved, but marginally.
Hyatt menus have changed and for the most part, I liked it, but the breakfasts are still dismal and the buffet has gotten worse. Dry, rough, jerky bacon. Slivers of gristle passed off as sausage. Stale bread.
And endless amounts of alcohol at 8:30am — champagne and bloody mary mix all around. Trashy.
Came in this morning and sat with my tea before starting breakfast. I had a table outside next to the fire pit so I was pretty comfortable. I watched people as they came in and ordered alcohol and wasted no time getting wasted.
For $ 350+ a night, I expect some sort of quality control.
Oh well.
My food was not appetizing, though I did enjoy the oatmeal and the surprise of cheese blintzes instead of the usual crumbled pancakes or dry French toast.
Fruit was fresh. Omelette station was busy. Dessert selection was mysterious. Didn’t touch it.
Service was better today than other days. We had Michael as our server and he so far has been the best I’ve had over the past 2 years. Everyone else has either been apathetic or plain horrible.
The caliber of people staying at the Huntington has also changed. Every year, I seem to see a steady decline in the clientele, and I’m not talking about numbers.
I am in no way a débutante, but I don’t think I’m wrong in saying that getting drunk at 9am while still drunk from the night before and lacking the ability to control your volume of speech while advertising to the entire dining area how plastered you and all the girls at your table were during last night’s party is hardly what I would expect at this Hyatt.
Sad. I used to frequent this hotel for both get-​aways and bites to eat, but now, the idea of coming here is more an obligation. This used to be my favorite hotel, but now I’ve moved the Monterey Bay Inn to the top of my list.
As I said in my previous update, I won’t be coming anymore. Today was, as stated above, and obligation.

I highly recommend dining on the restaurant patio if you can, because WOW is the view gorgeous! It was so fun to have brunch here, sit in the sun, and enjoy both the fountain and the ocean.
The service was top-​notch, that’s for sure! This high end resort is complete with an excellent wait staff. We were waited on hand & foot, it was lovely.
The breakfast menu here is very well-​rounded and has many great options from sweet to savory, and healthy ones too! My boyfriend had a whole wheat wrap (I forget what was inside, oops) and he really liked it. Came with marinara dipping sauce, and fresh fruit. I had the pecan waffles with lemon whipped cream & caramelized peaches. The peaches were the best part! The waffles were a little too sweet for me — they should have been fluffier too.
Over all, the food was good, but nothing special whatsoever. We could have had a better breakfast elsewhere for cheaper, but we paid for the view and the Hyatt experience.

You know how some 4 – 5 star establishment will treat you differently from their normal customers if you’re participating in a pri fix meal deal? Well that defintiely did not happen here, and we had an excellent dining experience.
AMBIANCE
Very classy and elegant. It’s definitely a place where you would see an older more well-​to-​do crowd frequenting, but that doesn’t bother me. The dress code is business casual, and patrons appeared very formal and well-​mannered. Definitely a nice date spot or to celebrate a milestone. There were at least two couples celebrating an anniversary the day I went.
SERVICE
The service was spot on and essentially what you would expect from a 5 star steakhouse. Our interaction with our waitress was friendly, yet professional and we always felt taken care of.
FOOD
The three course meal with a glass of wine was very appetizing. You can’t go wrong with either of the starters (endive salad or butternut squash bisque) and the homemade biscotti dessert with ice cream was the perfect way to end the night.
I will say that the organic salmon disappointed me as it was overcooked and bland (hence the docked star), but my partner’s steak was flavorful and tasty. So, definitely pick the flat-​iron over the fish as your entrée.
PARKING
Valet only, but the restaurant will validate your ticket (for up to 3 hours).
SUMMARY
Overall a great value at $ 30 a person for a three course meal plus wine. I wished they offered a restaurant week lunch option because the view of the ocean is spectacular and combined with the excellent service and tasty dishes, it most certainly woudl be a home-​run. Definitely a fine choice for fine dining

Spent Valentines weekend at the Resort and one morning my partner and I decided to have breakfast here. As I walked inside the restaurant everyting was great. The lush furniture, to the fire place looked beautiful.
That Sunday they had brunch. We decided to take advantage and try the brunch menu. Brunch consisted of everything. Omellette bar, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, oatmeal, juice, smoothies, fruit, toast, and a Bloody Mary Bar at an additional price. Overall. Brunch was good. Nothing special though.
Our waitress was the only negative factor. She hardly came over to see us, or just check in. We always needed to waive her down, or just stare before she would actually look our way. Seems like they need to work with the servers a bit more.

So I bought a Travelzoo for $ 55 for 2 people. 2 soups or salads, 2 entrees-​not including the surf & turs, and 2 desserts. It’s inside the Hyatt which is very nice. The patio looked very nice but it was too cool for us to eat outside. We did get a table by the fireplace which was very nice.
Service was great though! Very attentive and we always had water in our glass.
Asparagus soup was light & creamy– very good.
Butternut squash soup was good but has a sweet taste to it.
Filet Mignon-​Medium was a good size and very tender.
Veggie Rosotto with scallops– not very many veggies in there, just brussel sprouts & onions. You get 2 scallops which was cooked well but for the price.
Pear dessert was nice & warm, flaky and not too sweet.
Meyer lemon cheesecake was good but not very lemony at all.
Nutella & chocolate tart was just take.
We also ordered the kids meal pasta w/​turkey meatballs which was a very good size.
The bread was fresh & warm. Yummy.
The beet salad was good flavor but for $ 9, you should get a bit more.
Overall, it wasn’t bad. I just wouldn’t rush back since it’s inside a hotel. Great staff though!

Thanks Unilocal!I read the reviews and got the voucher from
. The food was quite good. We had 3 meals here and enjoyed every one of them. The lobster is very good. As well as the filet. The pork is so tender. One of the salads had a strange odor from the cheese but other than that I loved all our meals. The servers were always very nice and on our last dinner we celebrated our wedding anniversary and they gave us a complimentary cake with the words Happy Anniversary written on it. Thank you The Californian! We will be back again soon!

During a stay at the Hyatt Regency, I decided to try the restaurant for lunch. I ordered a mixed greens salad, and the menu gives you up to 5 add on items. I chose Avocado, carrots, bacon, blue cheese and croutons. I asked the waitress about the shrimp and she said they were jumbo grilled shrimp and very tasty. Sounded good to me, so I added that as well. I asked for Balsamic Vinaigrette and Blue Cheese dressing on the side. Price of salad — $ 19.00.
I asked a busboy (waitress was nowhere to be seen) for some bread and he brought back two slices of what looked like thick, white sandwich bread.
The greens were good (hard to mess that up), but the shrimp on top were awful. They were those little, soggy, shrimp that looked like they came frozen out of a bag and thrown on top of the salad. No flavor, no seasoning, just wilted sad little shrimp.
The balsamic vinaigrette was very scary looking and I didn’t even taste it. It came in a ramekin and if you held it upside down, the vinaigrette didn’t budge. It was like molasses, so thick and sticky.
The waitress disappeared and didn’t come by for about 20 mn. after serving my salad. I showed her the shrimp and the vinaigrette and she said «yeah, that doesn’t look right, I’ll go talk to the chef». The manager came over and agreed that the shrimp were not up to par and would investigate what exactly was in the ramekin.
I wasn’t charged for the salad, and I will never go back.

The Californian is situated within the Huntington Beach Hyatt Resort. It has some indoor seating and some outdoor patio seating. Re the patio seating– because the Hyatt is elevated, and because there is a distance between the Hyatt building, the deck, PCH, and then finally the beach, you feel a bit distanced from the ocean. However, the restaurant is right next to the Hyatt bridge over PCH to the beach so, before or after dinner, you can have a nice walk to/​on the beach to see the view/​sunset.
The food was ok. If you eat on the patio in the evening, food gets cold fast if you’re a slow eater. I had the filet mignon, which was decent.

Great breakfast menu. There were so many great things on there that I couldn’t decide. So naturally I went for the most unusual thing on the menu, the poached egg pot. This was advertised as the healthy option. The poached egg pot was amazing! It was almost like a thick poached egg stew with tomatoes & spinach. It was absolutely delicious. Don’t be fooled by the description, it is a pretty hefty portion.
My coffee mug was always topped off thanks to the friendly and attentive waitstaff. They were very fast with the service. I guess they knew that most of there had a conference presentation to get to so they were really quick with bringing out the coffee and the food.
With a yummy healthy breakfast and traveler friendly service, this place can’t be beat. If you are staying the Hyatt, you should have at least one breakfast at this place.

My beau and I went to the Californian with a Unilocal/​groupon something-​like-​that deal. What an incredibly pleasant experience! Our server was so attentive and polite, even funny at times. We were a bit concerned that we would get a cold shoulder for showing up with an online deal, but our experience was entirely the opposite.
Our deal was for the multiple course tasting menu with wine parings. Everything was delicious, and the kitchen was very accommodating to our requests. (I am a pescetarian) The coffee setup was a delight, with all sorts of little tasty treats to nibble and dip.
I have nothing but nice things to say about this establishment!
Note: We have also been here for brunch and HIGHLY recommend the bloody mary bar.

⁴⁄₅ stars for food
¹⁰⁄₅ stars for customer service
Parents came here to celebrate 25^th anniversary and for a date, and our family came here again to celebrate my brother’s birthday.
It was the usual, fancy place, with small, yet pricey portions of food. Our family each got our own dish, but we all tasted a bit of each other’s dishes. Frankly, I was terrified FOR our waiters because my dad can be quite a picky customer, yet my dad was grinning ear to ear throughout the night and for the rest of the night, a rare sight to see for my young eyes. We had about 5 different gentlemen bringing water, slices, or rather, slice of bread, and each of our dishes, but our main waiter was Theudeus (or something like that), and he is by far one of the best server/​waiter I have ever seen. He is the best. That is all.
Appetizers:
— Char-​Grilled Prawns and La Quercia Ham Skewer ($ 13): Personally, I think it would taste better with bacon than ham…
— Lemon Herb Ricotta Ravioli ($ 13): 3 small pieces of mushroom-​stuffed ravioli. It wasn’t too bad, but I like my Ravioli more meaty.
— salad… it had pears, but I don’t remember what it was called
Dishes:
— Seared Scallops ($ 25): scallops were a bit chewy, but the potato purée was my favorite. Very soft and fluffy, and very buttery, creamy, flavorful.
— Grilled Flat Iron Steak ($ 23): the steak was very tender, loved it. Potatoes were unfortunately drowned in oil, but it was still edible.
— Pappardelle ($ 20): Not sure what those rice, crusty looking food pieces were, but I didn’t like
— Grilled Natural Filet ($ 33): delicious
— Roasted Chicken Breast ($ 20): the two huge carrots are random… and whatever the chicken was on top of was extremely salty, too salty
Overall, the dishes and appetizers were enjoyable, despite the few too salty/​oily moments, but customer service. two thumbs up!
Note: You can purchase a coupon

The Californian seemed to be a great place to bring a group of girlfriends for a nice, upscale dinner, and we got the
coupon to save some money as well. Their menu is seasonal, and I can’t remember what we all got, but I do remember feeling like the meal ended up being worth what we paid for it (after, not before, the coupon). Beware — the coupon can only be used on food, so price yourselves accordingly! It’s inside the Hyatt, and feels very spacious. The décor reminded me of a fancy Italian restaurant that rich old people would go to.
Service was good, but I can’t imagine coming back here to pay full price.